Process of manufacturing artificial-fuel blocks.



UNITED STATES PATENT QEETCE.

ALBERT DILLON DELMICHEROUX, OF MARSEILLES, FRANCE.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL-FUEL BLOCKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 711,995, dated October28, 1902.

Application filed June 14, 1899. Serial No. 720,579. (No specimens.)

T0 to whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT DILLON DE MICHEROUX, a citizen of theRepublic of France, residing at Marseilles, France, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Processes for ManufacturingArtificial-Fuel Blocks, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of artificial fuel in the formof blocks, the object being to provide an economical process of makingsuch fuel which will possess greater heating power and cause less smokeduring combustion than the like products heretofore produced.

My improved process is designed to utilize the residues of various kindsof hard or soft coal and permits the utilization of mineral powder ordust without mixing it with other fuel for the purpose of submitting itto the action of a blast-furnace.

In carrying out my invention I prepare a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons,such as petroleum-oil, and preferably gas-tar, alkaline substances, suchas lime or sodaic lime, (a compound of lime and caustic soda,) andorganic acids in the form of fatty animal or vegetable matters orresins, the mixture being submitted to heat and continuous agitation.The gas-tar, which represents eighty per cent. of the mixture, is firstsubmitted to a partial distillation to relieve it of ammoniacal watersand light oils, which are collected and condensed. The sodaic lime inthe state of a sticky cold paste is submitted to the action of anair-current freed of its carbonic gas and electrified by means ofdischarges and sparks produced by any well-known devices or apparatus,which form no part of this invention. When the air thus treated hasacted sufficiently on the lime-soda compound, the latter is mixed with aresin in a finelycomminuted condition. The sodaic lime and the resin,which together represent twenty per cent. of the admixture, are thenadded to the tar and the whole subjected to heat until a temperature of100 centigrade is reached, the mixture being constantly stirred oragitated, thus converting the water and a portion of the oils containedin the sodaic lime into steam, said oils being afterward collected bycondensation. After heating the mixture for several hours it is left tocool, and when sufficiently cold it is placed in a kneading or otherlike apparatus, where it is thoroughly mixed with a combustible-such ascoal-dust, peat, wood, or other wastes-or with fragments or dust ofmineral and chemical substances, such as form the residues of ores,oxids, sulfids, earths, and the like, either alone or mixed with thecombustibles. proportion of the agglomerating mass varies from ten tothirty kilograms per one hundred kilograms of other materials. Thisproportion may be up to fifty per cent. of the agglomerate for certainores, these agglomerates of ores being treated directly in ablastfurnace without theaddition of combustible or flux. Theagglomerated mass after coming out of the mixer and kneader iscompressed into smallbricks or blocks in a suitable press.

The compound of lime and soda may be considered a mechanical mixture;but the action thereof on organic materials differs from that producedby lime and that produced by soda when these substances are employedseparately. The alkaline action of caustic soda, which has the greaterenergy, increases the like action of the lime. The alkaline action ofboth substances mixed together is increased by ozone, generated byelectric discharges on the'surrounding air. Thus I obtain asuperoxidized alkaline substance of still greater energy than soda-lime,which is a compound of lime and caustic soda. If atmospheric air wereemployed for producing the ozone, the action would require a long timeby reason of the quantity of oxygen contained in the atmosphere. Inpractice I employ an apparatus the function of which is to separate thegas from the atmosphere, and thus act on nearly the whole quantity ofoxygen separated from the other gases. The apparatus does not form apart of my invention; but it is combined with other arrangements toproduce ozone. The soda-lime thus converted has more energetic action onfatty substances-such as oil, tar, dad-and produces their saponificationmore readily and completely.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to obtainby Letters Patent, is-

The process of manufacturing fuel, con- The eral and chemical substancessuch as form the residues of ores, oxids, sulfide, pressing same intoblocks, substantially as set forth. :0

sisting of mixing gas-tar with a compound of hme and caustic soda, andwith organic acids 1n the form of fat, the lime-soda compound havingfirst been ozonized, heatin and agi- ALBERT DILLON DE MIGHEROUX. 5tatiug said mixture, and when coo mixing \Vitnesses:

same with a, suitable combustible waste mai- AD. STURM,

terial such as coal-dust 0r fragments of'min- GREGORY PHELAN.

